Concise Oxford Dictionary of Archaeology (404 page)

Late Upper Palaeolithic hunter-gatherer communities occupying much of northern and western Europe during the period 16000–10000 bc. The classic Magdalenian is concentrated in southern France and northern Spain, but it can also be recognized extending northwards into Britain and eastwards into the North European Plain in Germany, Poland, and as far as the Sudost River in Russia. The name is taken from the type-site rock-shelter of La Madeleine in the Dordogne Valley of southwest France. The Magdalenian stone industry is characterized by small geometrically shaped implements, especially triangles and semilunar blades, that were probably set into bone or antler handles for use, burins, scrapers, borers, backed bladelets, and shouldered and leaf-shaped projectile points. Bone was used extensively to make wedges, adzes, hammers, spear heads with link shafts, barbed points and harpoons, eyed needles, and jewellery. Their economy was based on reindeer hunting and fishing, and there is evidence of occupied caves as well as open sites. Some of the finest cave art in France and northern Spain can be attributed to these communities, as can a great many decorated bone and ivory pieces. The Magdalenian followed the
SOLUTREAN
and
AURIGNACIAN
and was succeeded by the simplified
AZILIAN
. Magdalenian culture disappeared as the cool, near-glacial climate of the late
DEVENSIAN
warmed and the animal herds the communities depended upon became scarce.

 
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Early Mesolithic communities occupying the North European Plain from Scandinavia to the northern Balkans in the period
c.
9000 bc to 5000 bc. This extremely widespread culture was named after the finds from a bog at Mullerup, in the Magle Mose, on the island of Zealand in Denmark, where evidence of the industry was first recognized. The name Magle Mose means ‘big bog’ in Danish. The material culture of these communities is well known because a number of excavated sites lay in waterlogged areas and were well preserved. Their tools and equipment included microliths, woodworking tools such as chipped axes and adzes, picks, barbed points, bone and antler spearheads, and fishing equipment such as spears and fish-hooks. Wooden bows, paddles, and dugout canoes have been found. Some Maglemosian material culture was artistically designed, with decoration on tools and wooden canoes. Ornaments such as pendants, bead necklaces, and amulets are also known. Their way of life was adapted to a forest, riverside, or lakeside environment, with fishing and the hunting of red deer the main sources of food and materials. Domesticated dogs are known.

 
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ARCHAEOMAGNETIC DATING
.

 
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A technique that measures the degree to which a body of soil or sediment becomes magnetized when exposed to a magnetic field of known strength. All soils have some potentially magnetizable components, the nature of the ferrous mineralization and particle size being a major influencing factor. This allows apparently similar sediments to be distinguished from one another according to the degree of susceptibility. Especially useful for archaeology is the fact that the introduction of humic, organic, and burnt material, such as might be associated with settlements or areas of human occupation, tend to increase the susceptibility of soils. In archaeological prospection, systematically sampling an area of landscape may allow areas of high and low magnetic susceptibility to be recognized and thus settlement areas and activity sites to be identified. Within an individual site the technique can be used to characterize deposits and variations within them, thus allowing the position of houses, industrial areas, and middens to be recognized, and patterns formed by the recurrent use of certain spaces to be mapped.

 
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A portable device for measuring localized anomalies in the intensity and direction of the earth's magnetic field as a result of variations caused by changes in subsurface geology or as a result of human activity that changed the magnetic properties of the ground. Burning and the heating of sediments is the most significant factor, especially in detecting the presence of magnetically enhanced sediments in ditch fills, pit fills, and around structures. Ferruginous artefacts and deposits can also be located. A number of different kinds of magnetometer have been adopted for archaeological use. A
proton magnetometer
utilizes a sealed container full of water or alcohol in which is suspended a metal coil. When a current is passed through the coil the protons of hydrogen atoms in the liquid align themselves to its magnetic field. When the current is cut off, the protons realign themselves according to the local natural magnetic field, its strength being indicated by the frequency of their gyration on realignment. This frequency is transmitted back from the coil to the instrument where it is measured and logged. An
alkali vapour magnetometer
is a highly sensitive magnetometer that works at the atomic rather than the nuclear level. Developed by the University Museum of Pennsylvania University and Varian Associates in the 1960s it has the advantage of producing a continuous signal. Depending on the elements used, these instruments are also known as optically pumped magnetometers, optical absorption magnetometers, rubidium magnetometers, or caesium magnetometers. The last mentioned has become the most popular and in these the sensor is a glass cell containing caesium vapour at low pressure. Both the proton magnetometer and the alkali vapour magnetometer measure the total magnetic field so that systematic surveys across an area using close-set transects or a grid pattern will allow a map of magnetic anomalies to be built up. The resolution of the resultant plot, and the scale of the anomalies found will depend on the size of the sampling interval, the sensitivity of the equipment, and the magnetic characteristics of the area being surveyed. An instrument in which a pair of sensors is used, either one above the other or side by side, is known as a
GRADIOMETER
.